Stage Left, a popular restaurant located in downtown New Brunswick, will offer a new cocktail Wednesday as part of a nationwide campaign to raise money for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. Van Gogh Vodka invented the cocktail, called a “Give a Damn Martini,” for their “Cocktails without Prejudice” campaign. The restaurant will donate $1 for every martini sold. We think this is a unique and creative way to raise money for an admirable cause.

A building superintendent in New Brunswick stumbled upon an
alarming scene on June 2, 2009 — a room full of expensive spy
equipment and Islamic fundamentalist propaganda. The landlord
immediately called 911 with the belief that he had come into
contact with a direct threat. He was right, of course, but not in
the way that he thought. The threat that was discovered that day
was not in the form of a terrorist plot, but rather a police spy
ring, threatening not our safety but rather our society itself.

Rick Santorum has said some pretty outrageous things during his
campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Latest in this long
list of sometimes offensive and sometimes irrational statements was
his claim that prenatal testing results in abortion. Well, this,
along with his argument that federally provided education was
“anachronistic,” and that President Barack Obama’s policies are not
“based on the Bible.”

The recent preservation of one of the largest remaining
undeveloped properties in Raritan Township has been a serious
accomplishment, according to town officials. After years of effort,
a 108-acre portion of property consisting of farm fields, forests
and scenic waterfalls has been set aside for recreational use.
“There aren’t many chances to preserve a property in Raritan
Township where you can go for a walk through woods and fields,”
said Kate Buttolph, director of land acquisition and stewardship at
Hunterdon Land Trust.

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich told a crowd in
Florida last week that by 2020, he would have an American moon base
established. He also told that crowd that he would like to see the
development of commercial space industry. While Gingrich has
received a lot of criticism for these outlandish ideas — including
a jab from competitor Mitt Romney, in which he stated “If I had a
business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few
hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I’d say,
‘You’re fired’” — he’s sticking steadfastly to them.

As the 2012 presidential election approaches and candidates
continue down the campaign trail, it’s important that voters know
exactly what’s fact and what’s fiction. So when politifact.com, a
project that fact-checks statements by politicians,
mischaracterized a statement from President Barack Obama’s State of
the Union address Tuesday night, it’s unsurprising that the
organization has since received criticism.

With the advent of ever-evolving technologies, the greatest
threat to national security may come not from the guns and
artillery of an enemy’s military muscle, but from chemical warfare.
At least that’s what some researchers within the UMDNJ-University
CounterACT Research Center of Excellence suspect — and they’re
working hard to understand how bioterrorist weapons, such as
mustard gas, affect people and their surroundings. Used widely by
militaries in World War I, Iran and Iraq, the gas is designed to
target skin, eyes and lungs, according to the center’s director,
Dr. Jeffery Laskin.

In today’s world, it’s easy to get lost among hubbub of
industry, urban living and crowded suburbs. Such sterile and
synthetic environments may sometimes make us forget that our
communities and activities do have an impact on the environment
around us. “If we’re so intellectual, then how are we destroying
our planet?” asked Jane Goodall Monday night at the State Theater
in New Brunswick during a SmartTalk Connected Conversation.

Gov. Chris Christie is no stranger to receiving — and dishing
out — his fair share of criticism. Yet during an interview with
Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night, Christie may have dished out a
little more than his fair share when he insisted on bashing
President Barack Obama’s job performance on not one, but several
occasions. Christie, even after Oprah’s attempts to lead the
governor away from the subject, insisted on getting in As a
Republican, it’s only natural that Christie would oppose the Obama
administration.

Six employees of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission have
been arrested for producing and selling fake driver’s licenses and
using the locations and equipment of the NJMVC to carry out their
plans. NJMVC locations in Lodi, East Orange, Edison, Jersey City
and North Bergen were involved in the complex ring. False IDs,
especially ones as convincing as the licenses issued by the members
of this ring, are dangerous things, as they allow their owners to
fake their way into attaining credit cards, acquiring employment
under false pretenses, and so on.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech to
the United Nations yesterday in which she warned the world that the
United States would not stand for gay rights violations in foreign
countries. Although there was no talk of how exactly the United
States would enforce this policy, Clinton made it clear that
through diplomacy and foreign assistance, the United States would
fight for universal gay rights. “Gay rights are human rights, and
human rights are gay rights,” Clinton asserted in her speech. We
give her a laurel for delivering the speech, and we give President
Barack Obama’s administration as a whole a laurel for taking such a
strong stand. Now, if only we could solve all of the gay rights
problems here at home.

According to Eric Bolling of Fox Business’ “Follow the Money,”
the Muppets are trying to turn kids into communists. While most of
us may think it absurd to ascribe political stances to puppets —
least of all the eternally lovable Kermit and Co. — Bolling had no
problem arguing that the Muppets are anti-corporation. Bolling’s
assertions are based on the fact that the villain in the new
Muppets movie is an oil tycoon — which, of course, obviously means
that the movie tries to convince kids that all oil companies are
evil.

Android security researcher Trevor Eckhart has made himself an
enemy in software company Carrier IQ. The company is unhappy with
Eckhart because of a video he posted on YouTube earlier this week,
in which he reveals to the public that their smartphones are,
essentially, tapped by Carrier IQ’s software. On HTC, Blackberry,
Nokia and other phones, Carrier IQ’s software runs in the
background, unbeknownst to users and records text messages, web
searches, phone numbers and so forth.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on
Friday that it would begin an investigation into the Chevrolet
Volt. According to tests administered on the Volt, the electric
car’s battery may be in danger of catching fire after severe
crashes. Fortunately for Volt owners, General Motors is not leaving
them out in the cold. Not only is the company reaching out to every
Volt driver to assure them of the car’s safety, but it is also
offering these owners temporary cars for the duration of the
investigation if they feel unsafe getting into their Volts for the
time being.

You probably won’t be shocked to hear that coverage of yet
another pepper spray incident cropped up in new sources, but you
will be surprised to learn that this incident is not related to
Occupy Wall Street. At a Wal-Mart in Los Angeles on Black Friday, a
woman pepper sprayed other shoppers so that she could prevent them
from reaching certain merchandise before her.

It is safe to assume that most of the protestors who join Occupy
Wall Street and its related movements around the world know and
accept the fact that they may be arrested before they get involved.
Such is the risk of dissent. However, journalists are less likely
to expect to end up in holding cells . They’re just covering the
events, not transgressing social order. Regardless, more than a few
journalists have wound up on the receiving end of police force or
arrested since they have started covering the protests.

A new Web domain extension, .xxx, is currently in the process of
being launched. This extension is marketed specifically toward
adult websites. It is meant to make it easier for Internet users to
separate adult content from the rest of the Web. While this new
extension was designed with pornography in mind, some decidedly
non-pornographic companies decided to register .xxx websites,
including a few colleges.

Sometimes, it seems like our state’s public employees will never
learn that the Internet is not a private sphere. Union Township
teacher Viki Knox angered many people across New Jersey last month
because of the anti-gay comments she made on her Facebook page.
Now, 29-year-old Hector Rosado, a member of the Orange Police
Department, has been fired for posting racial slurs on his Twitter
account.

Low-income households will soon have an easier time connecting
to the Internet, thanks to cable companies. As part of the Federal
Communications Commission-led initiative Connect to Compete,
families whose children are eligible for free school lunches will
only pay $9.95 for broadband Internet. According to The Associated
Press, Microsoft also pledged to sells PCs with its Office software
for $250 for those families. Microsoft and Best Buy are also
offering technology training. Morgan Stanley will provide
microfinance services for community-based financial institutions.
About 5.5 million homes that currently do not have broadband access
will be eligible, according to the National Cable &
Telecommunications Association. We give the FCC and those involved
in the program a laurel for their willingness to help lower-income
families compete in an ever-developing world.

Ever since President Barack Obama introduced even the notion of
a health care reform, he met persistent resistance on the issue.
Thus far, six appeals courts have seen challenges to the health
care law, with the latest being the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia. The American Center for Law and
Justice filed the case, on the grounds that requiring people to
purchase health care infringed on their personal freedom.